Students who drop by the office may notice a few new faces decorating the hallways and offices of OPHS. Within the last few months, the office has hired two staff interpreters and a specialist.
Maureen Walton is one of the new staff interpreters. She was an on-call interpreter with OPHS last year and was pleased to be offered a staff position when it became available.
Maureen lives in the Lansing area with her husband, a pilot. She is looking forward to working with all subject matters at MSU.
Nicole Woodland is our other new staff interpreter. She has worked for OPHS as an on-call interpreter for the past two years.
Nicole earned an associate's degree from Lansing Community College in 1992 with a certification in sign language interpreting. She is currently working toward a degree in Audiology and Speech Sciences.
The newest specialist at OPHS is Stoney Polman, who will be working primarily with students with psychiatric and/or brain injury characteristics. Stoney has also specialized in treating individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse characteristics.
Stoney comes to MSU from Phoenix Counseling and Consulting, a company she founded. Phoenix was a vehicle for addressing disability, multicultural and workplace issues throughout the United States, Eastern Europe and Russia.
A service-connected disabled veteran of the U.S. Army, Stoney was injured in a parachute accident. Her years of duty fostered an interest in PTSD that continues to this day.
Stoney was at the Paralympics in Atlanta this August as a member of the 3rd Paralympic Congress. The Congress brought together ability access specialists and advocates from around the world to work on global issues. "The whole experience was very invigorating," said Stoney.
A 1989 graduate of MSU's Rehabilitation Counseling MA program, Stoney sits on the department's graduate program advisory board. She is also an active member of the board of the National Association of Protection and Advocacy.
Prior to founding her company, Stoney was a program manager for the Capitol Area Center of Independent Living, where she created programs as well as working one-on-one with people with disabilities. Another part of her job was fighting for advocacy in the time before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, and doing ADA training to familiarize groups with ADA requirements after it was passed.
Her community involvement is also evident. Stoney, a Native American, is the president of the board of the Nokomis Learning Center in Okemos. She has prepared and trained a variety of groups in Native American culture and heritage.
OPHS welcomes all students to visit the office soon to meet new staff as well as reacquaint themselves with our services.